Wednesday, September 28, 2011

For years upon years, I was an avid comic book consumer. I enjoyed… no loved my weekly trips to the comic book shop. In fact, it was a big part of my life from the time I turned 16, until two years after I got married.

What stopped my continual purchasing of comics was finances. When the Beautiful Wife and I first married, we weren't exactly well off. I worked at Walmart and was a full-time student, she had just graduated college. We managed, but it was one of those 'just barely' type of things (and to this day I still balk at the thought of eating Hamburger Helper).

Anyways, it was during this time of my life when I made the conscious decision to not purchase comics any longer. I mean, I was buying roughly 12 comics a month—which was dinner out with my wife (i.e. a night off from the Hamburger Helper!).

Over the years since, I have purchased various graphic novels and mangas, but it was not the nigh-religious weekly trip to the comic book store from that previous time. And of course, I've managed to buy nearly every comic-based movie out there. I still thought of myself as a COMIC BOOK FAN despite the lack of discretionary funds with which to purchase comic books.

And then news about DC's New 52 event started coming across. It was an interesting thought—a reboot of the entire universe. 52 titles, all starting over at issue #1, with absolutely zero continuity coming along for the ride.

"This would be a good time to get back into comics," I thought.

And probably much to my Beloved's dismay, I also thought "This would be a good time to get the eldest boy really interested in monthly serials, in comic form."

After all, the elder son grew up with the Teen Titans cartoon. He knew these DC characters even better than their Marvel counterparts. And better, I had enjoyed the DCU as it existed on TV (more than I ever had as a comic book buyer back in my hey-day).

Of course, as is so often the case in the high-pressure world of adulthood, the New 52 event started, roughly at the same time that it seems like two dozen projects jumped into high gear at work. That's not to say that I didn't have time to keep up with the news and reviews about it, I just lacked the time to bring my plans to fruition (the first step of which would be to actually find the closest comic book shop where I now live).

Regardless, the first week or two of the comics coming out, all seemed right, and I had actually thought about approaching my Beloved Wife with my newest thoughts on the best way to corrupt… err convert… uh… expand my child's cultural horizons.

But then two books were released which made me stop, and really start thinking "Hey, do I want to do this?" Those were the recent things concerning Starfire and Catwoman.

It was at this point, that I stopped, looked at the media blitz surrounding these issues, and realized something. I realized something so unnervingly shocking to the geek that dwells in my soul, that it was days before I was able to actually articulate it to myself.

I realized that I did not want my child reading these comics.

It's unerringly that simple. I did not want my child reading these comics, and with the way he reads, I know that all I would have to do is to effectively introduce him to comics, and his journey to comic book fan would be complete. Worse, this was enough to make me not want to get my son started in comics at all—because even if he starts with Archie or the new Darkwing Duck series, he'll sooner or later end up with DC and Marvel titles. It's an effect of aging in the comic scene.

The reasons for this are convoluted and complicated, but it boils down to is thus: I want my son to treat the fairer sex with respect.

That's how I was raised, and how I treat my wife. I hold the door for her. I open her car door for her. Etc., etc. All those little gestures which growing up in the eighties tried their damnedest to stamp out of me (I still remember the time I got fussed at by a lady for holding the door for her). And the thing is that a lot of that I don't stop at just doing such for my Beloved Wife. I'll hold doors for any female (and the elderly, and any guy with his hands full, and it's actually a somewhat convoluted scheme of when to hold doors, and when to pass off, but I'm digressing). The concept here is to protect, respect and honor women, while not dominating or repressing. It's a tight-walk, especially during courting rituals, but one whose entire basis is built on the concept of courtesy.

But, that somewhat antiquated concept of the Southern Gentleman is what I strive for. Additionally, it's the concept of honor and respect with which I wish to instill into my sons.

Unfortunately, that's not what Catwoman #1 and Starfire in Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 appear there to teach my son. The lesson that is to be found there, is that women are good merely for how they can please the males of the species. They are eye-candy in the truest sense of the word, as their characters are worn, in the same way their clothes are (i.e. nearly non-existent)—worse, they're characters without any flavor. Empty meta-physical calories if you will.

These characters aren't there to be super heroes. They're there to impart sex appeal to a books, whose primary demographic is still heterosexual males aged 12-18; and it's a sex appeal which is not designed to work with the story. It stands apart from the story in how they act.

Well, she’s not fighting anyone. And not talking to anyone really. She’s just almost naked and posing.

These comics are nothing but blatant, unnecessary fan-service—of the worst kind possible. As I said earlier, it's eye-candy. And in reality there's nothing wrong with a little eye-candy. Like real candy, it's fine occasionally, and in small doses. But just like real candy, in massive amounts, it's horrible.
Fan service and eye-candy can be done right. In fact, Warren Ellis' Empowered is entirely about this, and it's plots and characterizations are built around the concepts—and takes a very meta-textual stance in how super-hero comics overall treat female characters. But that's not what's happening with DC's New 52.

Manga does this. Sailor Moon, Open Sesame, and even Bitter Virgin all have fan-service to some degree, but they also feature strong female characters. Probably more importantly, the fan service is typically a part of.. not the plot per se, but aimed at any protagonist or male supporting character, or an aspect of their setting (people wear bikini's at the beach/pool, etc). But that's not what's happening with DC's New 52.

No, as evidenced by the picture to the left there where Starfire is in a very unnatural… and uncomfortable position, what these characters are doing is not done in service of good characterizations (or even bad characterizations) or the plot. As Laura Hudson points out over at Comics Alliance, it's not even done for the 'benefit' of the male characters on the screen.

It's done solely as eye-candy for the reader.

And too much eye candy makes the reader mentally lazy. It stops being about the story and the character, and becomes more about what's the next pose that the artist can put a character in. And these poses don't even have to be anatomically possible—so long as the character's "assets" are shown to good use.

And that mental concept leaks. It's a very short step from reading comics solely to see the next pose, to thinking that that's what girls are there for.

And that's a step I refuse to let my kids take. So, as a father, I cannot put them into the position where such a step is all but inevitable.

We're not talking about pornographic comics and manga here. Yes, those exist, and let's face it, if you know you're buying any book or periodical because of the T&A or the graphic depiction of sexualized content, that's one's right as an adult. But, I'm talking about mainstream comics and manga here. They should be about the characters and the story--not just vehicles for sexual content.

What this boils down to is that I'm not going to be buying into DC's New 52. Additionally, I'll not be bringing my sons into it either (though we'll continue watching Young Justice on TV). DC comics lost me as a consumer, and the potential revenue which both my children and I represent—worse, they lost me when I was almost eager to become one.

And that makes me kind of sad, as I have fond memories of reading comics as a youngster. A type of memory, which I'd like my kids to have.

*To anyone who noticed the edit, that was just me being way too tired when I finished my first draft last night. I had left placeholders in the manga bit, intending on going back and touching up on that, and hit publish rather than save.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

I almost didn't comment on this. In fact, I'm still trying to work up the pique that these changes so rightly deserve. And had it not been for the last one I read about earlier today, I wouldn't have even managed enough to bring up the ... well, whatever...for this post. All that I'll touch on later, but for now, there's one specific instance of change that really... irks me.

Likewise, this is one of the few changes which LucasFilms has actually confirmed as a change.

Specifcally, the fact that now, as Vader is tossing the Emperor down that shaft in RotJ he's going to be letting out a RotS "Noooo!"

Now, the original version of this had Vader being a silent, almost mystical sacrifice of his own self. It was the ultimate climax of the film--the point where you knew, knew without any shadow of a doubt, that the Star Warriors would prevail.. You didn't know what Vader was thinking, and in fact, you were focused on the Emperor as he prepared to kill Luke.

Now? Now, he's as pathetic and simpering as he was at the end of RotS.

I'm personally, amused with Simon Pegg's take on it, in which he describes it as "Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin's ghost."

Despite all of that, despite all the issues and miscellaneous angst involved in these changes, I'm left utterly unconcerned. I've been so... blasted by the sheer inanity of Star Wars over the past decade that I'm finding myself... less than moved by these changes.

Everything from the Death of Anakin Solo, to the death of Padme, all the way to the farce which is Anakin Skywalker's padawan. Worse, is the death throes which the Star Wars EU has been flinging about itself since the mid-point of the New Jedi Order.

Frankly, I'm left with the feeling that Star Wars died at that point--at least its heart and soul--and all that remains is the twitching of the various extremities of its bloated body, akin to a chicken with its head cut off.

With the lack of what one would consider a traditional Star Wars hero, I've grown to feel that Star Wars is just not the same. I find myself going through the motions of reading, just to appease the completist nature of my Otaku-ness rather than actually being concerned about the characters in question.

Monday, August 29, 2011

I've long felt that the copyright law in this country (USA) have been insane. I mean, we have huge portions of our cultural heritage out of the hands of creators and hackers because the Disney corporation has lobbied Congress time and again to ensure they don't lose control of the Mouse.

When you consider all the thousands of books that are out-of-print, but no one can actually get because they are still under these insane copyright laws, and it is almost enough to make one cry. Imagine what could be done if all those stories and movies were available for people to mash up and create new works from.

It's not like we're not seeing Pride and Prejudice and Zombies--but could you imagine zombies embedded into Golding's Lord of the Flies? Instead it, and thousands of other books, movies and songs --our cultural heritage-- is contained under copyright until roughly 2050.

But it's not just that, but also things like MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech. Which is pertinent with Irene hampering the opening of the MLK memorial.

Yes, one of the most important speech's in the last half of the twentieth century, and it's under copyright until late in the twenty-first century. And the King family is using those words and his likeness, not to push MLK's agenda of a color-blind society, but to make money. The thing is that the King family sells
copies of that speech on their website; and if you don't purchase one of their copies,
or if you perform the speech, you're actually in violation of copyright
law?

That's the joy of copyright right there.

It's the family of dead creators, and those corporations who had works "created for hire" who are the sole beneficiaries of these insane copyright laws. The King family routinely drag their father's name through the mud due to in-fighting over who gets to make money off of their dead father. And the same goes for hundreds of other families of dead artists.

Copyright was designed to make creators money, so that they would create more. That's its whole purpose--to allow creators to create more. But by hiding everything under a copyright black-hole for a century, nothing is getting created. We can't create mashups of things that we grew up on, we can't reuse aspects of our culture.

Remember, that until the 1978 change in the law, at least 85% of the works created before 1982 would now be in the public domain. And most of that 85% of all works since 1982 (and everything before 1955) are considered orphan works. These are things that no one is trying to make money off of. Books, movies, etc that are commercially unavailable and yet culturally off-limits.

These are works of art that are not doing any good for the copyright holders, and they're not doing any good for us as a culture. Instead, we are forced to buy the latest and "greatest" she-bangs which the so-called entertainment industry wants us to purchase and consume. Forget the fact that most of it is rubbish, and very little of it will be worth the effort to attempt to consume a hundred years from now.

But, we can continue paying for MLK's Deam speech. We can continue shoving our culture into a dusty-bin just so the Walt Disney company can keep control of a cartoon character that should have become a part of our culture heritage as much as it has become an aspect of our cultural baggage. We can continue to do this, until our children don't even know some of these stories exist. Rear Window, Seven Samurai, Dial M for Murder, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Creature from the Black Lagoon are just a handful of movies which my son will never get to see because they did not enter the public domain this year. They make no one money, and by the time they enter the public domain in 2050, my children won't care about them at all.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Ah, I have found what I am. I'm not one of those pansy MetroSexuals who get their nails done and have perfectly coiffed hair. Though my hair does look awesome, it does not need any extreme measures of maintenance. I wash it, comb it, and then blow dry it. Once every 6 weeks or so, I have some of it cut off. See, it's simple.

Anyways, as in all things, there is a CODE to being what I am, and that is a Retrosexual!

A Retrosexual, no matter what the women insists, PAYS FOR THE DATE.

A Retrosexual opens doors for a lady. Even for the ones that fit that term only because they are female.

A Retrosexual DEALS with IT, be it a flat tire, break-in into your home, or a natural disaster, you DEAL WITH IT.

A Retrosexual not only eats red meat, he often kills it himself.

A Retrosexual doesn't worry about living to be 90. It's not how long you live, but how well. If you're 90 years old and still smoking cigars and drinking, I salute you.

A Retrosexual does not use more hair or skin products than a woman. Women have several supermarket aisles of stuff. Retrosexuals need an endcap (possibly 2 endcaps if you include shaving goods).

A Retrosexual does not dress in clothes from Hot Topic when he's 30 years old.

A Retrosexual should know how to properly kill stuff (or people) if need be.

This falls under the "Dealing with IT" portion of The Code.

A Retrosexual watches no TV show with "Queer" in the title.

A Retrosexual does not let neighbors screw up rooms in his house on national TV.

A Retrosexual should not give up excessive amounts of manliness for women.

Some is inevitable, but major reinvention of yourself will only lead to you becoming a frou-frou little puss, and in the long run, she ain't worth it.

A Retrosexual is allowed to seek professional help for major mental stress such as drug/alcohol addiction, death of your entire family in a freak tree chipper accident, favorite sports team being moved to a different city, favorite bird dog expiring, etc. You are NOT allowed to see a shrink because Daddy didn't pay you enough attention. Daddy was busy DEALING WITH IT. When you screwed up, he DEALT with you.

A Retrosexual will have at least one outfit in his wardrobe designed to conceal himself from prey.

A Retrosexual knows how to tie a Windsor knot when wearing a tie - and ONLY a Windsor knot.

A Retrosexual should have at least one good wound he can brag about getting.

A Retrosexual knows how to use a basic set of tools. If you can't hammer a nail, or drill a straight hole, practice in secret until you can - or be rightfully ridiculed for the wuss you be.

A Retrosexual knows that owning a gun is not a sign that your are riddled with fear, guns are TOOLS and are often essential to DEAL WITH IT. Plus it's just plain fun to shoot.

Crying. There are very few reason that a Retrosexual may cry, and none of them have to do with TV commercials, movies, or soap operas. Sports teams are sometimes a reason to cry, but the preferred method of release is swearing or throwing the remote control. Some reasons a Retrosexual can cry include (but are not limited to) death of a loved one, death of a pet (fish do NOT count as pets in this case), loss of a major body part.

A Retrosexual man's favorite movie isn't "Maid in Manhattan" (unless that refers to some foxy French maid sitting in a huge tub of brandy or whiskey), or "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood." Acceptable ones may include any of the Dirty Harry or Nameless Drifter movies (Clint in his better days), Rambo I or II, the Dirty Dozen, The Godfather trilogy, Scarface, The Road Warrior, The Die Hard series, Caddyshack, Rocky I, II, or III, Full Metal Jacket, any James Bond Movie, Raging Bull, Bullitt, any Bruce Lee movie, Apocalypse Now, Goodfellas, Reservoir Dogs, Fight Club, etc.etc.

When a Retrosexual is on a crowded bus and or a commuter train, and a pregnant woman, hell, any woman gets on, that Retrosexual stands up and offers his seat to that woman, then looks around at the other so-called men still in their seats with a disgusted "you punks" look on his face.

A Retrosexual knows how to say the Pledge properly, and with the correct emphasis and pronunciation. He also knows the words to the Star Spangled Banner.

A Retrosexual will have hobbies and habits his wife and mother do not understand, but that are essential to his manliness, in that they offset the acceptable manliness decline he suffers when married/engaged in a serious healthy relationship - i.e., hunting, boxing, shot putting, shooting, cigars, car maintenance.

A Retrosexual knows how to sharpen his own knives and kitchen utensils.

A Retrosexual man can drive in snow (hell, a blizzard) without sliding all over or driving under 20 mph, without anxiety, and without high-centering his ride on a plow berm.

A Retrosexual man can chop down a tree and make it land where he wants.

Wherever it lands is where he damn well wanted it to land.

A Retrosexual will give up his seat on a bus to not only any women but any elderly person or person in military dress (except officers above 2nd Lt)

NOTE: The person in military dress may turn down the offer but the Retrosexual man will ALWAYS make the offer to them and thank them for serving their country.

A Retrosexual man doesn't need a contract -- a handshake is good enough. He will always stand by his word even if circumstances change or the other person deceived him.

A Retrosexual man doesn't immediately look to sue someone when he does something stupid and hurts himself. We understand that sometimes in the process of doing things we get hurt and we just DEAL WITH IT.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Apparently, the current book-based meme for geeks like me, is to mark off those books on NPR's top 100 SF&amp;amp;F novels that one has read. At this point, I do need to provide a hat-tip to Robb over at Sharp as a Marble for bringing this up. So, without further ado....

The NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy novels with the ones I have read in bold:

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams3. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin6. 1984, by George Orwell7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman 12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke25. The Stand, by Stephen King26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess 31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman49. Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson54. World War Z, by Max Brooks55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven &amp;amp; Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange &amp;amp; Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore74. Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks *(but only the 1st one)
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven &amp;amp; Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

I feel almost bad about marking number 83 there. After all, I've only read the first in that series (Consider Pheblas). That said, I always find it amusing on these lists of NOVELS when they include series as a single entity. While I can almost understand in something like The Thrawn Trilogy or The Space Trilogy where all 3 novels make up a story element as a whole, I see less point in that regards in such things as The Culture Series (or even Asmiov's Foundation trilogy) since each novel there stands alone on its own (and in point of fact, Foundation itself is actually made up of a couple of independent short stories/novellas); and that's not even counting that SOME entries just give individual books, ignoring the series as a whole (i.e. Ringworld, Dragonflight and Old Man's War).

Anyways, my count there is 42 of those 100 which I've read. Almost half! This is especially interesting, since I've been considering purchasing, a number of those books... in fact those which are italicized. To think, if I'd had already given in to my more... impulsive purchases in regard to those books, I would've topped gotten over 50 read.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Well, I took the lovely wife out to see the new Transformers movie the other night, and I have to say that overall I found it a great, and fun ride. Now, because this is a movie that is fundamentally about a bunch of toys, one should not expect great plotting along the lines of Citizen Kane or say... Barberella, yet within those confines, it performs that which it is trying to do well.

The Good:
As I side, this movie was a fun ride. It knew exactly what type of movie it wanted to be, and that happened to be the type of movie which Micheal Bay excels at. For those of you wondering, I'm talking about big-action, explosion-based summer popcorn eye-candy. Of most importance, is that you can easily see where the lack of a writer's strike failed to hamper this movie the way the strike did for Transformers 2. Additionally, I loved having Leonard Nimoy for the role of Sentinel Prime.

The Bad:
Probably, most disappointing is the somewhat gratuitous way that Mr. Bay used the 3D which the film was shot in, and his lead-actress to add some rather overt sex into the system. Of course, that's been the case with this series of film (with the exception of the 3D) since Megan Fox's lifting of Bumblebee's hood. Outside of that, the only thing that I really kind of cringed over was the ham-fisted use of a Wrath of Khan quote during the build-up to the final fight.

The Ugly:
The little bug-bots that swarmed over Megatron.

Overall, I was quite happy with going to see this movie. And amusingly enough so was my closet-geek of a wife. Though that may have something to do with the fact that the Sprint Cup 48 car was featured in this movie...